Classic Rock News

Pete Townshend fans won’t have to wait much longer for his new solo single. After teasing the track last month, The Who rocker finally announced the song “Can’t Outrun The Truth” will drop March 24 and shared a snippet of it on social media.

“Can’t Outrun The Truth” is Townshend’s first solo single in 29 years and will be accompanied by his first solo video in 40 years. The track was composed and produced by Townshend’s wife, Rachel Fuller, under her nom de plume, Charlie Pepper. 

Rachel shares that the song was inspired by the feelings of isolation many were dealing with during the pandemic: “I really started to think about how unbelievably difficult this period of time was going to be for so many people.”

She added, “I wrote lyrics and then I sat at the piano and wrote the music, and then I thought, ‘Oh, I really would like to record it, because it’s really not a bad song at all’ – and my singing days are long over. So, I asked Pete to record the demo.”

A portion of each “Can’t Outrun The Truth” download will be donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust. The song is available for preorder now.

There will also be 200 12-inch singles of “Can’t Outrun The Truth,” featuring artwork by Damien Hirst and Pete’s “Let My Love Open The Door” on side B. Each one will be signed by Townshend and will be sold at the upcoming Teenage Cancer Trust shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall from March 21 to 26. All proceeds from those sales will go to the charity, as well. 

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When Jeff Beck passed away in January, many of his fellow artists shared touching tributes to him. Well, now some of those artists are going to do it again, this time onstage. 

Eric Clapton and Beck’s widow, Sandra, have announced A Tribute to Jeff Beck with Eric Clapton and Friends at London’s Royal Albert Hall, set to happen May 22 and 23.

Although a complete lineup is still being finalized, artists confirmed to join Clapton at the tribute include Rod Stewart, ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons, Johnny Depp, Gary Clark Jr., Robert Randolph, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Joss Stone, Doyle Bramhall, Imelda May, John McLaughlin and Olivia Safe, along with Jeff Beck Band members Rhonda Smith, Anika Nilles and Robert Stevenson. 

Tickets for the shows are set to go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m. GMT, although there will be a presale on Tuesday. Information on ticket sales can be found at ericclapton.com.

Any surplus proceeds from the concerts will benefit the Folly Wildlife Rescue based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, which is “dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of injured, orphaned and distressed wild animals and birds” in their area.

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Yes is back with new music. The band, currently made up of Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison, Billy Sherwood and Jay Schellen, is set to drop the new studio album Mirror To The Sky on May 19. They’ve shared the first single from the record, “Cut from the Stars.”

“This is a very important album for the band,” Howe, the band’s longest serving member and producer of the record, shares. “We kept the continuity in the approach we established on (2021’s) The Quest, but we haven’t repeated ourselves.”

He added, “As Yes did in the 1970s from one album to another, we’re growing and moving forward.”

Mirror to the Sky is available for preorder now and comes in a variety of formats, including a limited deluxe box set, featuring transparent electric blue double vinyl, two CDs and a Blu-ray, with a 36-page hardcover book, a poster and more.

Here is the track list for Mirror To The Sky:

“Cut from the Stars”
“All Connected”
“Luminosity”
“Living Out Their Dream”
“Mirror to the Sky”
“Circles of Time”
“Unknown Place”
“One Second Is Enough”
“Magic Potion”

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On This Day, March 10, 2003…

The Police were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers reuniting for their first performance in 18 years.

They performed “Roxanne,” and “Message in a Bottle,” as well as their classic “Every Breath You Take,” joined by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and John Mayer. 

Also getting inducted into the Hall of Fame on this day were The Clash, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, AC/DC and The Righteous Brothers.

Four years after the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame reunion, in February 2007, The Police reunited once again to open the 49th annual Grammy Awards, which was followed by a 30th anniversary reunion tour.

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Queen continues their look at classic opening numbers with episode eight of their year-long YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live.

Wrapping up the deep dive into the opening of a show, this week’s episode focuses on their 1986 Magic Stadium Tour, which had them kicking off shows with the A Kind of Magic track “One Vision.”

The clip features footage of the opening of their Wembley Stadium shows, the first time the band had played the venue since 1985’s Live Aid. It features frontman Freddie Mercury wearing his iconic military-style yellow jacket designed by Diana Moseley.

Released in November, 1985, “One Vision” was written by all four members of Queen, with Roger Taylor handling the lyric duties. The tune became the opener for the entire run of their 1986 U.K. and European tour, which included the band’s very last show ever with Mercury, on August 9 in Knebworth Park, U.K.

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Amid preparations for his annual Oscar Viewing Party this Sunday, Elton John and his family are mourning the death of their beloved dog Marilyn, who died, according to Elton’s husband, “just shy of her 18th birthday.”

Posting a photo of the pup, Elton’s husband David Furnish writes, “Marilyn joined the Furnish-Johns as companion to Elton’s beloved cocker spaniel Arthur. Together they traveled the world with us – from backstage at Caesar’s Palace to the gondolas of Venice.”

Furnish notes that when he and Elton welcomed sons Zachary and Elijah, “Marilyn was like a sentry posted at the door when both Zachary and Elijah first came home from the hospital.” 

He adds, “Instinctively she knew about the importance of their arrival, and lay directly under their [bassinets] keeping vigil. Occasionally, she’d pop her head up over the edge to check on their well-being, with her tail wagging away madly.”

“Nobody, and I mean NOBODY who wasn’t a part of the family got near those boys,” Furnish gushes. “She was a fiercely loyal and protective mother.”

“She’s back together with Arthur now, charging around in doggie heaven and chasing rabbits,” he concludes. “A dear friend once remarked, ‘a dog is the only love you can buy,’ and the love we got back from Marilyn was bountiful and immeasurable.”

By Thursday evening, Elton, who’d “liked” David’s post, seemed O.K.: Photos showing him hanging out with Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X and Donatella Versace at the Versace Fashion Week 2023 show in West Hollywood were posted to his Instagram Story.

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Fleetwood Mac has gone through several lineup changes over the years, but none were as drastic as the summer of 1994 when they toured with only two original members: Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. 

For that tour, Traffic’s Dave Mason, singer Billy Burnette and Bekka Bramlett filled in for Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Bramlett, daughter of rock duo Bonnie and Delaney Bramlett, says she knew the gig was never going to last.

“I knew my job was to get Stevie back,” she says. “I wasn’t a moron.”

She says she knew taking the gig was “dangerous,” noting, “I knew I was facing tomatoes.”

Because of that, Bramlett decided to go out of her way to make sure fans didn’t mistake her for Stevie. “I didn’t want to twirl around. I wanted to be me,” she says. “I even dyed my hair brown just so people in the cheap seats would know that Stevie wasn’t going to be here. I didn’t want anyone to be discouraged or let down.”

She also stayed away from performing signature Stevie songs like “Rhiannon” and “Dreams,” although she did sing “Landslide” for a bit of the tour. 

And as she suspected, the job didn’t last long. Bramlett says Mick fired her by fax, which she described as heartbreaking.

She did eventually get to meet Nicks, but says, “She didn’t care for me.”

“I was blonde. The first thing she said was, ‘Oh, I didn’t know she was blonde. And she over-sings,’” Bramlett explains. “But it’s OK. I still love her. She probably felt like I pissed on her tree. I can understand that. I’m a woman. I dig it. I understand it. I get it. I don’t dig it, but I get it.”

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Bruce Springsteen fans in Columbus, Ohio, are going to have to wait to see The Boss. The rocker’s Thursday show was postponed due to illness, although who is sick hasn’t been revealed. 

“Due to illness, tonight’s Bruce (Springsteen) and The E Street Band concert at Nationwide Arena has been postponed,” the arena announced on social media. “We are working on rescheduling the date so please hold on to your tickets as they will be valid for the rescheduled show.”

This isn’t the first illness to plague the tour, although it’s the first time a show has been called off because of it. Since launching in February, E Streeters Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Jake Clemons and Soozie Tyrell have all come down with COVID and had to miss shows.

Springsteen’s next concert is scheduled for Sunday in Uncasville, Connecticut.

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Def Leppard is once again giving fans a look at their life on the road. This time they’ve shared a tour diary giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at their recent shows in Bogotá, Colombia, and Lima, Peru, which weren’t easy thanks to the high altitude in the countries.

The clip shows the band doing their best to get used to the altitude, with frontman Joe Elliott drinking coca tea. He jokes it was “a bit f****** late for me,” likely referring to his brief hospitalization before the Bogotá show.

While Elliott says he “felt absolutely zero complications with altitude sickness” during the concert, he was a “different guy” before the show. He wonders if the altitude may have played a role in Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins’ death in Bogota last March.

Elliott says the band was staying at the Four Seasons, which is where Taylor passed away, and shares, “I wonder whether altitude had something to do with his death because it’s a bastard. It really is.” 

He adds, “To do a gig eight-and-a-half million feet above sea level, not easy.”

Elsewhere in the video, we see Def Leppard rockin’ out in front of their adoring fans, meeting the first lady of Colombia, enjoying the sea on their first visit to Lima and more.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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It sounds like Pete Townshend is thinking about revisiting his Scoop series. The Who legend revealed the news while answering some questions posed by fans in the comments of an Instagram post featuring an old picture of himself in one of his home studios.

One fan asked, “You have anymore Scoop releases coming out?” He shared the great news that he’s “thinking about it right now.”

Townshend released his first Scoop album — featuring demos of released and unreleased Who tracks and solo songs — back in 1983, and followed that up with one in 1987 and one in 2001.

And that wasn’t the only revelation Townshend made in the comments. When a fan jokingly asked, “Is there any possibility of shooting Roger [Daltrey] out of a cannon on the upcoming tour? It would make for front page headlines,” the rocker couldn’t help but respond. 

“I have always wanted to do that,” he wrote. “But then, he has always wanted to do it to me.”

The Who returns to the road June 14 in Barcelona, Spain, with their The Who Hits Back! tour. A complete list of dates can be found at TheWho.com.

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